Performance of 50lbs hornbow
I made a hornbow that was loosely based on the holmguaard/mollegabet style wood bows a while back and after getting it tillered I didn't really shoot it much.
Yesterday I was down at my archery club and decided to shoot a few flight arrows with this bow. The best shots were 320 - 330 yds with arrows between 271 and 320 grains.
My question to those of you who do flight shooting is how does this sort of performance stack up with Turkish bows of similar low draw weight.
Yesterday I was down at my archery club and decided to shoot a few flight arrows with this bow. The best shots were 320 - 330 yds with arrows between 271 and 320 grains.
My question to those of you who do flight shooting is how does this sort of performance stack up with Turkish bows of similar low draw weight.
These are quite heavy arrows for flight shooting. If you are shooting that far with heavy arrows, you might do very well with light arrows. To compete in a primitive class, you need a natural materials string and arrows with all natural materials too.
If I were you I would be encouraged.
If I were you I would be encouraged.
Last sunday, a friend of mine shot a similar bow, although a bit heavier. It's basically a short-short turkish bow with straight slim tips reflexed at the end of the sals; instead of kasans and recurved tips. A little over 70 pounds at 20 inches of draw, shot with a 20 inch long 10 gram arrow, it reached 348 meters. Hopefully he will be able to shoot it with a longer draw and longer arrows, which will likely result in some large numbers. :)
Seems like these bows have the advantage in that the tips can be made light enough for the bow to work efficiently, while the regular turkish bows probably need some extra poundage to keep the kasan+tips relatively light enough.
Seems like these bows have the advantage in that the tips can be made light enough for the bow to work efficiently, while the regular turkish bows probably need some extra poundage to keep the kasan+tips relatively light enough.
Do you have some pictures of these bows?
Bede - yes I guess the arrows are a bit heavy. I spent yesterday making some more from my best /stiffest pitch pine shafts and I have got them all under 300 grains so far with a little room to lighten them further. I also found a piece of bamboo That is around 220 grains pre flectching.
Kviljo - your friends bow sounds quite impressive! As mine was the first time I had made this design I didn't want to push it too far and had no idea how stable it would be. It turned out to need virtually no tillering and there was zero twist anywhere. On my next one I will make the 'levers'/outer limbs a lot narrower and also scoop out the sides (triangluar cross section) a lot more. I think because I wasn't sure on how heavy it was likely to be I over estimated the size of the outer limbs. Now that they are covered with sinew I am loath to remove it and then reduce them.
I also think I could draw this bow to maybe 29 or so inches and my flight arrows were only 26..... At 26 inch draw there is very little string follow after shooting. I wonder if Adam's ratio of bow length to 'correct' draw length applies to this bow.
I will p[ost some pictures later.
Kviljo - your friends bow sounds quite impressive! As mine was the first time I had made this design I didn't want to push it too far and had no idea how stable it would be. It turned out to need virtually no tillering and there was zero twist anywhere. On my next one I will make the 'levers'/outer limbs a lot narrower and also scoop out the sides (triangluar cross section) a lot more. I think because I wasn't sure on how heavy it was likely to be I over estimated the size of the outer limbs. Now that they are covered with sinew I am loath to remove it and then reduce them.
I also think I could draw this bow to maybe 29 or so inches and my flight arrows were only 26..... At 26 inch draw there is very little string follow after shooting. I wonder if Adam's ratio of bow length to 'correct' draw length applies to this bow.
I will p[ost some pictures later.
Here is a picture of the 70# @ 20" bow:
http://forum.bueforum.no/download/file.php?id=832
It was shot with a synthetic ultra-thin string though, but still very impressive and promising at such a short draw. This bow is by the way his first horn bow. - and there are more to come.
At only 50 pounds, I would say 330 yards seems to be very good, and it will be interesting to hear what kind of performance you get with a longer draw.
I'm also very curious to hear if others have tried their turkish composites at flight archery. It's puzzling to me that there are not more horn-bowyers who are interested in it. It's the ultimate test for bowyery if you ask me.
http://forum.bueforum.no/download/file.php?id=832
It was shot with a synthetic ultra-thin string though, but still very impressive and promising at such a short draw. This bow is by the way his first horn bow. - and there are more to come.
At only 50 pounds, I would say 330 yards seems to be very good, and it will be interesting to hear what kind of performance you get with a longer draw.
I'm also very curious to hear if others have tried their turkish composites at flight archery. It's puzzling to me that there are not more horn-bowyers who are interested in it. It's the ultimate test for bowyery if you ask me.
I have shot two of Adam's bows in flight archery competitions (primitive complex composites in the Turkish style and without the siper too) and Jaap Koppedrayer has shot several of his own. Neither of Adam's bows were flight bows; one was an experimental hybrid and the other was designed for hunting. Likewise Jaap was shooting bows he had made for other purposes. Choosing the bows we did was to conform with the rules and test out some ideas about sipers and majras. It has come to my attention that some people may have thought I was shooting bows made specifically for flight and judged the results on that basis. While all the bows were well made and robust, they were not designed for flight. any of them would have made a good hunting bow or target bow. The one Turkish style flight bow I did shoot was not measured and there are only pictures of me at partial draw. It was a bow by McEwen owned by Dr Grayson and a later experience might explain why some bowyers are reluctant to shoot their bows in flight competitions.
The bow in a flight competition is highly stressed because of the low weight of the string and the arrows. I had Dr Grayson's bow explode in my hand on a later occasion, fragmenting into three pieces.
Incidentally, I thought the arrows were heavy for full length arrows. At 26 inches, they are almost twice the weight of a flight arrow for that length. I started out with heavy arrows because I was afraid of breakage, but it was bad for distance. A small diameter shaft is essential too. However, I am not recommending you go immediately to light arrows. You need to develop a feel for each bow and how to get the best release possible to insure the flight of the arrow is straight.
The bow in a flight competition is highly stressed because of the low weight of the string and the arrows. I had Dr Grayson's bow explode in my hand on a later occasion, fragmenting into three pieces.
Incidentally, I thought the arrows were heavy for full length arrows. At 26 inches, they are almost twice the weight of a flight arrow for that length. I started out with heavy arrows because I was afraid of breakage, but it was bad for distance. A small diameter shaft is essential too. However, I am not recommending you go immediately to light arrows. You need to develop a feel for each bow and how to get the best release possible to insure the flight of the arrow is straight.